Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Claims in Orlando and Central Florida
You did everything right. You were stopped at a light, or you had the green, and someone hit you. Then you find out the driver who hurt you has no insurance at all, or carries the bare minimum, and the minimum does not come close to covering what happened to you.
This is one of the most common calls I get, and most people are surprised by it. Florida does not require drivers to carry bodily injury liability coverage. The state requires Personal Injury Protection and property damage liability, but not coverage for the injuries a driver causes to someone else. So, a substantial share of the cars on I-4 are being driven by people who could not pay for a serious injury if they caused one.
That is what uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage exists for. And if you have it, the claim is against your own insurance company.
What Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage Actually Does
Uninsured motorist coverage, usually written UM or sometimes UM/UIM, is coverage you buy on your own policy that pays you when the person who hurt you cannot.
It covers two situations.
Uninsured. The at-fault driver had no bodily injury coverage, or fled and was never identified, or the coverage was denied for some reason.
Underinsured. The at-fault driver had coverage, but not enough. If your damages run into six figures and their policy limit is $25,000, the difference is what UM is for.
In Florida, UM coverage generally has to be offered to you, and if you did not want it you had to reject it in writing. That means it is worth checking your own policy before you assume you do not have it. People are sometimes covered without remembering they bought it, and occasionally a rejection was never properly documented.
Who UM Coverage Protects
UM coverage usually reaches further than people expect. Depending on how the policy is written, it can cover you, family members living in your household, and people occupying your vehicle with permission. It can also cover you as a pedestrian or a cyclist, or as a passenger in someone else’s car.
More than one policy can sometimes apply to the same crash. Part of what we do early in a case is find every policy that might respond, which is sometimes more than the client knew existed.
Stacking, and Why It Matters More Than People Realize
If you insure more than one vehicle, your UM coverage may be stacked or non-stacked, depending on what you elected when you bought the policy.
Stacked coverage means the limits on your vehicles can combine, so three cars with $50,000 each in UM may give you access to $150,000. Non-stacked coverage means you are limited to the coverage on a single vehicle. Non-stacked is cheaper, which is why a lot of people have it without knowing.
This single election can change what a case is worth by a large multiple. It is one of the first things we look at.
The Trap Nobody Warns You About
Here is the mistake that can cost you your entire UM claim.
Most UM policies require your own insurance company’s consent before you settle with the at-fault driver. If you take the other driver’s policy limits and sign a release without getting that consent, your UM carrier may take the position that you destroyed its right to pursue the at-fault driver, and that you have forfeited your UM claim.
People do this in good faith all the time. The other driver’s adjuster offers the policy limits, it sounds like the best available outcome, and the release gets signed. Then the larger claim, the one that actually could have covered the injury, is gone.
If you have been offered a settlement by any insurance company and you carry UM coverage, talk to a lawyer before you sign anything.
Your Own Insurance Company Is Now on the Other Side
This is the part clients find hardest, and it is worth saying plainly.
When you make a UM claim, you are asking your own insurance company to pay you. You have paid them premiums for years. You have never made a claim. And their interest in this transaction is the same as any other carrier’s interest: to pay as little as they reasonably can.
You will be asked for a statement. You will be sent to an examination by a doctor the company selects. Your medical records will be reviewed for anything in your history that could be blamed for your symptoms instead of the crash. None of that means anyone is doing anything improper. It means the relationship changed the moment you filed the claim, and you should not go into it expecting otherwise.
I spent years on the defense side, representing insurance companies. I know how an adjuster values a claim, what gets written in the file, and what makes a company move. That is the experience I use for my clients now.
What Happens If Your Own Carrier Will Not Pay
Sometimes a UM carrier evaluates a claim fairly and the case resolves. Sometimes it does not.
Florida law provides remedies when an insurance company fails to settle a claim in good faith when it should have. Those cases have their own procedures and their own specialists, and when one develops in a case I am handling, I bring in counsel who litigates bad faith.
What I do is build the record that makes it possible.
That means documenting your injuries and your losses completely, not partially. It means making a demand that puts everything the company needs in front of it, including the medical records, the treating opinions, the wage loss, the future care, the whole picture. And it means creating a clear record of what the insurance company knew and when it knew it.
That is not a trap laid for the insurer. It is the opposite. It is giving the company every opportunity to pay what it owes, with all of the evidence in its hands and nothing hidden. If it pays what the claim is worth, the case resolves and my client is made whole. If it does not, the file speaks for itself.
How These Cases Get Handled Here
I am Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar, a distinction held by only a small percentage of attorneys in the state, and I specialize in commercial vehicle and trucking accidents and serious injury cases across Orlando and Central Florida.
Most cases resolve without a trial. But they resolve for more when the insurance company knows the lawyer across the table is prepared to try the case, and that is how I prepare every one of them.
The firm is intentionally small. I personally oversee every case, and every client has my cell phone number.
Frequently Asked Questions
If You Were Hurt by an Uninsured or Underinsured Driver
If you were seriously injured in Orlando or anywhere in Central Florida and the driver who hit you had no insurance or not enough, call The Main Law Firm. We will find every policy that might respond, including coverage you may not know you have.
Consultations are free and there is no fee unless we recover.
Good People. Serious Accidents.
